Quirks & Kinks (18 page)

Her normally vibrant blue eyes sharpened like shards of glass, reaching out to stab me with each look. Any interaction between us was a forced cordiality at best, and to make matters worse, Larry had just given us the news of a lifetime—under any other circumstances.

“So what you’re saying—” Easie started, trying to confirm all of the uncomfortable details Larry had already announced.

“Is that you guys are it? Yes. Ratings are in, projections are good, and the network has just confirmed a full season of guaranteed episodes starring the two of you. What else do you need me to repeat?”

She shook her head, and then put her hand to her mouth, looking as though she might be sick. While she tried not to puke on Larry, all I could do was look at her. Beg her with telepathy to look back at me.

“Why do you both look like I just killed your puppies? This should be the best news you’ve heard in at least a year. There should be jumping and whooping and a generally cheery disposition.”

When neither one of us said anything, his face grew even more concerned. “Seriously? What the hell, guys?”

“I think we’re just taking it in,” I answered for the both of us, trying to play the part of an adversary, but all it earned me was another dirty look.

So noted. I would be able to do absolutely no right today.

“Take it in better,” Larry commanded, standing from his chair with a frown marring the normally smooth line of his brow.

I stood to shake his hand, offering, “No worries. We at least have a week to get out of this funk before we have to shoot.”

“No,” he refuted immediately, looking from Easie to me and back again. “Didn’t I mention we secured a full season deal?”

“Well, yeah—”

“That means we can speed up the shooting schedule. You guys are shooting an episode today.”

“Today?” I asked with a resigned quiet at the same time that Easie shrieked it.

I’m pretty sure I heard a dog or two yelp from somewhere outside.

“Fucking today,” Larry confirmed for both of us, mocking, “Take the word ‘to’ and the word ‘day’ and fucking smash them together.
Today.
”

Shit.

“You can have forty-five minutes for lunch, or chain smoking, or whatever it is the two of you do, but at the end of that time, I expect you to be in makeup and ready to roll.” He moved to round the table, shoving his chair dramatically and dropping two identical packets to the surface of the table below.

“Your scripts.”

I waited for Easie to go first.

“Fine,” she gritted out through clenched teeth, folding her small body into itself and practically radiating rage.

“Yeah,” I agreed, as Larry made for the exit of the room, obviously not really caring if I was okay with it or not.

Easie stood up quickly, rushing to follow Larry out rather than risk being left in the room with me alone, but I pinched closed her route to the door and put my hands up in a placating gesture.

“Easie, please, hear me out.”

“No.”

“Come on,” I pleaded, “Give me a chance to—”

“Fuck that shit and your fucking face, Anderson Evans!” she yelled, pointing a more than irritated finger directly at my offending mug.

I reached out to grab her hand, hoping that touching her would go over slightly better than all of my attempts at verbal reasoning.

It didn’t.

Her other arm swung wildly, taking a twisted path but intending to end right where Tammy predicted it would.

I shifted to the side to protect myself, but took my hand off of hers for fear I would hurt her.

She took the change in my position as an invitation to slide right by me and out of the room.

“
Easie.
”

Hope bloomed when she actually turned to look at me one last time.

Knowing she wouldn’t let me go into a full explanation, I offered the only thing I could. “I’m sorry.”

And then crashed and burned when I saw the look on her face. It was closed and hard and unwilling to look back.

“Yeah,” she laughed without humor. “Me too. You have no fucking idea how much.”

With one last sweep of her hair, she gave me her back, exiting the room and effectively shutting me out for good.

I might not have known before I got here, but I sure as hell knew now.

I needed luck. And lots of it.

AT FIRST, I’D THOUGHT
Easie’s overall hatred of all things me would make for an awkward day of shooting. Especially since the script called for even more intimacy than we’d been asked for before.

Blindfolded, she was required to fully trust me, follow my actions, and wait for her only cues through our bodies. I knew it would be hard for her, and it was pretty fucking hard for me. The amount of pressure I felt to handle her respectfully was nearly crippling.

But I had underestimated her completely, and her sheer talent—both raw and cultivated—mesmerized me more and more as the day went on.

She completely left herself and surrendered to the character, drawing me in and challenging me to resist her charms.

I’d been failing miserably all day, but this scene was the worst.

With her hands on me and her smell in my nose, she consumed me. Transported me out of my role and into myself and erased all signs of rational thinking.

When my lips touched hers, it felt real and right and free. I couldn’t stop myself, giving into the temptation was too easy and resisting was too hard, so I let my tongue control my mind instead of the other way around, slipping it inside her mouth when a tiny gasp created the opening.

Lost in the feel and taste of her, I didn’t measure myself but rather got lost in her all over again, squeezing her body tightly against mine and allowing my tongue a probing caress.

She gave back to me equally at first, caving to my body’s will and following along wherever I might take her.

And then her signature dirty word became mine.

Until.

My worst nightmares took shape as she went cold. Both in reception and action, she broke free from herself and the character and punished me despite the ramifications.

Metal and regret flooded my mouth when she bit down on my unwelcome tongue. I yelped in both surprise and pain, and Howie immediately put an end to a scene that had already been broken.

“Cut!”

“Fuck,” I muttered bringing a hand to my mouth and sampling the blood. She’d gone gentle, biting only hard enough to break the surface. I’d have to thank her for that.

Unfortunately, she didn’t stick around to let me do anything, emotion and duress ripe on her face in a way that I’d never seen before as she ran off of the set with speed and purpose.

Howie’s accusing eyes shot to mine, but I didn’t have time to pay a debt of explanations to him. The only one I owed anything to right now was Easie.

Taking off to follow her at a jog, I didn’t look back, knowing that there was only one place I’d find her.

The sun was bright when I broke through the door to outside, but the immediate sting of her hand across my face was hotter. Knowing what she thought she knew, I didn’t blame her. If it weren’t for the refusal of my aching cheek, I would have admitted that it made me like her more.

I didn’t want a girl who would eat shit she didn’t deserve.

“Easie,” I coaxed, trying to get her to look at me as her shaking hands struggled to light her stupid cigarette.

“Fuck, Anderson!” she yelled, pulling the offending stick out of her mouth when she couldn’t make her hands cooperate.

Her eyes were vividly beautiful out in the light, but I’d flooded them with tears I had to make right.

Doing something I never thought I’d do, something that went against everything I’d ever known or fought for, I gave in for her, reaching to take the cigarette and lighter out of her hand and lighting it for her.

“Here,” I said, offering the cigarette like a peace gesture.

Skeptical and assessing, the petite features of her face wrinkled and rolled, trying to resist but finally giving in.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she inhaled, harming herself physically but healing her emotional holes all at once. A calm came over her as she finally met my eyes, and I held them, selfish and unwilling to lose them any time soon.

“What’s your problem?” she asked, throwing her hands out to her sides in desperation.

“I—” I started to explain, only to be cut off by her unwillingness to wait me out.

“You’re spoken for!” she accused, the harsh line of her body breaking my heart and telling me I had a chance all at once. People who didn’t care didn’t look like that.

“I’m not,” I disagreed with acute precision.

She didn’t want to hear it, and, as inopportune as it was for me, I admired her ability to resist naivety. “Don’t give me that shit! I may have the face of a fucking angel, but I wasn’t born yesterday!”

Part of me marveled at her ability to be mean and funny all at once.

“Easie—”

“I saw you with her!”

“It’s not what you think with Tammy. I can promise you that.” If I didn’t think she would hit me even harder, I would have laughed.

“I know I saw her kissing you.”

“You did. I know. But Tammy and I live together—”

“You
live
together?!” she shrieked violently, taking a swing at my balls but thankfully missing.

“Christ!” I screamed as I executed defensive maneuvers. “No! No! Jesus, that came out wrong. Tammy was my roommate in college—”

She started to interrupt, so in a panicked rush to stop her I spoke quickly and without tact.

“But she wasn’t a
Tammy
then, she was a
Tommy.
”

Eyes blinking in surprise, her half-burned cigarette dropped to her side.

“You . . .” she choked out, empty hand climbing her throat. “You . . . like men?”

“
No!
”

“I . . . I don’t understand,” she admitted with a thankfully renewed sense of calm. It was eerie and a little Stepford, but I’d take it.

“She’s my best friend. And she has been since she was a he.”

“God,” she blinked rapidly. “I don’t . . . I don’t even know what to . . .” Her eyes snapped to mine sharply. “She makes a
really
pretty girl.”

I’ve never smiled so hard. “I’ll tell her you said that.”

She shook her head in shock, trying to make sense of a myriad of racing thoughts. I understood. Really. It wasn’t everyday that someone told you their best friend was transgender.

“Wait . . . why was she kissing you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Tammy gets a kick out of messing with people, and that night she picked you. And I don’t know, she claims it was something of a test.”

“Girl sabotage,” she murmured thoughtfully before bringing her reflective eyes back to mine. “Don’t tell her how pretty I said she is. If she’s that good at mind games, she’s already a diva. Compliments will only make it worse.”

“You’re right,” I laughed, taking the opportunity to take several steps closer to her. “She is a diva. But I think it’s only because I’m one of the only people she can get away with it around. Most of her life is spent watching her step and fighting for acceptance. All of our other friends abandoned her when she transitioned.”

“Well, then all of your other friends were pricks.”

I tucked her loose hair behind her ear and nodded, my face two inches from hers.

“Yeah.”

“Sorry I bit your tongue,” she whispered, her inquisitive eyes watching mine intensely.

I used them to smile, and then brought my lips gently to hers. Slowly, I teased the line of her lips with mine, taking my time and avoiding putting my tongue anywhere near her mouth. Each corner tasted better than the other, and the middles of her lips cushioned mine like perfectly erotic pillows. Eventually, she grew frustrated with my withholding, challenging it by sliding
her
tongue into
my
mouth . . . and her heart right into my trap.

I smiled as her tongue touched mine, bringing my palm up to cup the line of her jaw softly. Side to side, I tilted my head and went deeper, welcoming her melting body into my ever-hardening one.

Breaking the kiss was one of the single hardest things I’d ever done, but getting to live the moments after it made it worth it.

“I’m not,” I finally responded, surprising her enough to cause a rolling giggle.

The sound was soft and innocent in the face of her hard facade, and I welcomed it, breathing it in until I couldn’t take anymore.

Bringing our foreheads together and eyes to the ground, we both noticed her abandoned cigarette at the same time.

“I’ll get you another,” I offered easily, knowing that I’d do anything she wanted me to right then.

Her eyes lit up with wonder as she shook her gorgeous head. “I don’t need it right this second.”

Her lips met mine again, this time of her own volition, and my accompanying surge of satisfaction fortified my shaking legs enough to prevent their buckle.

I worked hard to go slow, but I didn’t go easy, pillaging the line of her tongue from front to back and pushing her gently against the wall.

She went easily, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and stretching to the very top of her tippy toes to ease my slump. I appreciated the gesture, but I didn’t intend to let her work at all. Lifting from her firm thighs, I wrapped her smooth legs around my waist and let my fingers linger a little longer than necessary on their exit.